Your Right to Know

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration eased the way yesterday for illegal immigrants who are
immediate relatives of American citizens to apply for permanent residency, a change that could
affect as many as 1 million of the estimated 11 million unlawful immigrants in the United
States.

A new rule issued by the Department of Homeland Security aims to reduce the time illegal
immigrants are separated from their American families while seeking legal status, immigration
officials said.

Beginning on March 4, when the changes go into effect, illegal immigrants who can demonstrate
that time apart from an American spouse, child or parent would create “extreme hardship” can start
the application process for a legal visa without leaving the United States.

Once approved, applicants would be required to leave the U.S. briefly in order to return to
their native country and pick up their visa.

The change is the latest move by the administration to use its executive powers to revise
immigration procedures without Congress passing a law. In August, the Obama administration launched
a program to halt the deportation of young people brought to the United States unlawfully as
children.

The new procedures could reduce a family’s time apart to one week in some cases, officials said.
In recent years, a few relatives of U.S. citizens have been killed overseas while waiting for their
applications to be resolved.

“The law is designed to avoid extreme hardship to U.S. citizens, which is precisely what this
rule achieves,” Alejandro Mayorkas, director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, said in
a statement. “The change will have a significant impact on American families by greatly reducing
the time family members are separated from those they rely upon.”

Previously, many immigrants who might seek legal status did not pursue it out of fear they that
would not receive a “hardship waiver” of strict U.S. laws: An illegal immigrant who has overstayed
a visa for more than six months is barred from re-entering the United States for three years; those
who overstay more than a year are barred for 10 years.

The new rule allows those relatives to apply for the waiver without first leaving the United
States.